Design Museum – Dezeenhttps://www.dezeen.com
architecture and design magazineFri, 09 Dec 2016 14:43:53 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1Rory Gardiner photographs the Design Museum's new homehttps://www.dezeen.com/2016/12/03/rory-gardiner-photography-london-design-museum-oma-john-pawson/
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/12/03/rory-gardiner-photography-london-design-museum-oma-john-pawson/#respondSat, 03 Dec 2016 18:00:36 +0000https://admin.dezeen.com/?p=1015046These photographs taken by Rory Gardiner capture the new home of London's Design Museum inside the former Commonwealth Institute, which was renovated by John Pawson and OMA. Shot in analogue, Gardiner's photographs reveal the oak-lined interiors created inside the 1960s building by London-based designer John Pawson, as well as the refurbished structure by Rem Koolhaas' OMA. The building's distinctive copper-covered, hyperbolic paraboloid roof is one of

Shot in analogue, Gardiner's photographs reveal the oak-lined interiors created inside the 1960s building by London-based designer John Pawson, as well as the refurbished structure by Rem Koolhaas' OMA.

The building's distinctive copper-covered, hyperbolic paraboloid roof is one of the few remaining features of the heritage-listed structure, which had its official opening last week.

The underside of this roof is left exposed and spans a huge atrium cut through the centre of the building.

According to OMA, reconstructing the building below its unique roof provided a significant challenge.

"The structure of the building beforehand was not capable of supporting any kind of meaningful modern function," said a spokesperson for the firm.

"The floors themselves were very cheaply built in the 1960s, but what was the star of the show was the roof."

]]>https://www.dezeen.com/2016/12/03/rory-gardiner-photography-london-design-museum-oma-john-pawson/feed/0Critics underwhelmed by "clumsy" new Design Museumhttps://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/25/critics-underwhelmed-clumsy-new-design-museum-john-pawson-oma/
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/25/critics-underwhelmed-clumsy-new-design-museum-john-pawson-oma/#respondFri, 25 Nov 2016 14:52:17 +0000https://admin.dezeen.com/?p=1012788The Design Museum's new home inside the former Commonwealth Institute in London is an oak-heavy, hotel-like interior that is impressive, but could have been so much more exhilarating, according to critics. London's relocated Design Museum opened its doors to the public for the first time yesterday, although the press were invited in for a tour earlier this month. Observer

]]>The Design Museum's new home inside the former Commonwealth Institute in London is an oak-heavy, hotel-like interior that is impressive, but could have been so much more exhilarating, according to critics.

London's relocated Design Museum opened its doors to the public for the first time yesterday, although the press were invited in for a tour earlier this month.

Observer critic Rowan Moore said it was "an exceptional achievement" that an attraction that first opened in the basement of the V&A now has its own £83 million premises.

But he suggested that the project might have been much more impressive if John Pawson, who designed the interiors, and OMA, which masterplanned the site and designed the neighbouring apartments that funded the project, had switched roles.

Photograph by Gareth Gardner

"This achievement would have been greater if OMA had designed the museum and Pawson had designed the luxury apartments," he said. "For both seem to be playing out of position, trying to work with situations with which they don't feel entirely comfortable."

Moore claimed the site "could have been a truly exhilarating place if it showed more interest in its content and surroundings", but that instead the converted 1960s building is "a clumsy dance partner for the OMA blocks".

"The aerial drama feels a bit suffocated by the boxy levels of oak veneer stacked up below, as if a mid-range business hotel had been shoehorned in beneath the great concrete kite," he wrote.

"Some of the spaces seem a bit squeezed in around the building's difficult structure, and there are odd moments of feeling like you’re in a building-within-a-building."

Photograph by Gareth Gardner

Despite this, he praised museum director Deyan Sudjic for the achievement, given the financial model – created through a deal with Chelsfield, the property developer that owns the site.

"It might not have been the most imaginative choice of architect, and there are compromises in the nature of the partnership, but, given the circumstances, Sudjic has pulled off an impressive deal," said Wainwright.

"The residential blocks outside reinforce this image of architecture's pivot from radical public vision to private trophy," he wrote.

Photograph by Gareth Gardner

But Icon deputy editor John Jervis was far more critical, calling the new museum a "a sharp reminder that the narcissism of starchitects and the expansionism of design advocates remain essentially powerless against the political and economic forces now shaping our cities".

He claimed that the building was "far richer and more revelatory" before the renovation, and that Pawson's insertions create "an overbearing bulk that both contradicts and conceals much of the roof’s famed curves".

"This is not how museums should be made, nor how buildings preserved," he concluded.

The Design Museum was first established by designer Terence Conran and journalist Stephen Bayley to highlight the importance of industrial design to contemporary culture.

Originally housed in the basement of the V&A, the museum moved into a converted banana warehouse at Shad Thames in 1989. But when Deyan Sujic took over as director in 2006, he started planning the museum's relocation.

Pawson's conversion of the former Commonwealth Institute provides the museum with almost 10,000 square metres of exhibition space – triple the amount at its previous location.

The project was made possible through a deal with Chelsfield and the local council – the property developer was given permission to fill the site with luxury flats, in exchange for £20 million towards the renovation, and a rent-free 300-year lease.

]]>https://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/25/critics-underwhelmed-clumsy-new-design-museum-john-pawson-oma/feed/0London's new Design Museum by John Pawson and OMA unveiledhttps://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/17/design-museum-opens-architecture-news-john-pawson-oma-kensington-london-uk/
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/17/design-museum-opens-architecture-news-john-pawson-oma-kensington-london-uk/#respondThu, 17 Nov 2016 18:45:28 +0000https://admin.dezeen.com/?p=1008660The Design Museum's new £83-million London home by John Pawson and OMA is set to open next week at the former Commonwealth Institute building in Kensington. Dutch architecture practice OMA worked with London firm Allies and Morrison, and Arup engineers to restore the shell of the 1960s Grade II*-listed building in west London – including its distinctive copper-covered, hyperbolic

]]>The Design Museum's new £83-million London home by John Pawson and OMA is set to open next week at the former Commonwealth Institute building in Kensington.

Dutch architecture practice OMA worked with London firm Allies and Morrison, and Arup engineers to restore the shell of the 1960s Grade II*-listed building in west London – including its distinctive copper-covered, hyperbolic paraboloid roof.

"I think its marvellous to have been able to save the building, and have it now as what's going to be a world-class centre for design," said Pawson during the press preview.

"Having decided that we wanted to keep that extraordinary atrium, [the aim] was for it to make a building that was really wonderful for people as well as objects."

"All the floor structure of the building is new, so there was an extraordinary temporary structure holding up this roof while the old structure was knocked out to create the new building," added Chris Masson of Pawson's studio. "It was quite a feat of engineering."

Two basement levels were excavated below the footprint of the original 1960s building, increasing its floor plan from 6,000 square metres to 10,000 square metres – triple the space available at the museum's former Shad Thames location in southeast London.

"We kept the roof and largely rebuilt the building underneath," explained Renier de Graaf of OMA.

"The structure of the building beforehand was not capable of supporting any kind of meaningful modern function," added a spokesperson for OMA. "The floors themselves were very cheaply built in the 1960s, but what was the star of the show was the roof."

The floors are connected by flights of wooden steps, which are surrounded by tall balustrades and double as impromptu seating. Hanging rails are integrated into the wood-lined walkways surrounding the atrium, giving the museum the opportunity to use the circulation space as an extra exhibition area.

Floors throughout are covered in pale grey terrazzo, and the underside of the building's impressive roof form is left exposed.

The museum's library is located on the first floor, alongside the archives of designer Robin Day and an education space sponsored by the Swarovski Foundation.

The top floor is home to the museum's permanent collection, where displays are designed by Studio Myerscough. This floor also has a restaurant and members' room designed by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby's practice Universal Design Studio.

The restaurant gives diners views out over Holland Park on one side and down into the atrium through internal windows on the other. The interior is finished with furniture made from blue-stained ash wood.

"Our goal was to complement Pawson's design, while contributing to the overall visitor experience, one that creates a fluid transition from day to night within the space," said Universal Design Studio director Hannah Carter Owers.

The members' room, which also faces onto Holland Park, features a more restrained colour palette. Here, there is a polished-pewter bar and a mirror clad wall. Both spaces are furnished with pieces from Barber and Osgerby's collections for Vitra.

]]>https://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/17/design-museum-opens-architecture-news-john-pawson-oma-kensington-london-uk/feed/0Design Museum's opening exhibition presents reactions to a complex worldhttps://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/17/design-museum-london-kensington-opening-exhibition-fear-love-reactions-complex-world/
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/17/design-museum-london-kensington-opening-exhibition-fear-love-reactions-complex-world/#respondThu, 17 Nov 2016 15:52:27 +0000https://admin.dezeen.com/?p=1008572The first exhibition to take place in London's new Design Museum explores a spectrum of issues that define our time, with installations by OMA, Hussein Chalayan and Neri Oxman. The Fear and Love exhibition presents 11 installations by 11 different architects and designers, who each confronted a different issue shaping today's world. It's the first

The Fear and Love exhibition presents 11 installations by 11 different architects and designers, including Hussein Chalayan – who presents two wearable devices that he originally created for his spring summer 2017 show

The museum's new home is in the former Commonwealth Institute, a 1960s building on Kensington High Street that has been renovated by architectural designer John Pawson.

"When the Design Museum opened in 1989, the first exhibition, Commerce and Culture, was about the value of industrial products," said chief curator and Dezeen columnist Justin McGuirk.

"Three decades later, we now take that value for granted. Fear and Love goes further, and proposes that design is implicated in wider issues that reflect the state of the world."

Following the Brexit vote earlier this year, architecture firm OMA has created the Pan-European Living Room

Among the issues explored by the 11 exhibitors are networked sexuality, sentient robots, slow fashion and settled nomads.

Following the Brexit vote earlier this year, architecture firm OMA presents the Pan-European Living Room, which is furnished with a piece of design from each of the 28 EU member countries.

The Pan-European Living Room is furnished with a piece of design from each of the 28 EU member countries

Fashion designer Chalayan explores the anxieties experienced by those living in cities, including the fear of terrorist attacks, and sexual desires.

Architect, designer and MIT professor Neri Oxman is exhibiting a series of 3D-printed death masks, included one created for musician Björk

He presents two wearable devices that he originally created for his spring summer 2017 show in September – a pair of sunglasses and a belt.

The sunglasses are embedded with sensors that measure brain activity, pulse and breathing rate. This data is then transmitted to a projector embedded in a belt, which casts a visual representation of the wearer's emotions for the outside world to see.

Amsterdam graphic designers Metahaven present a film about the marine wildlife conservation group Sea Shepherd accompanied by a series of flags

A second fashion designer, Ma Ke, is showing her ongoing project Wuyong, in which she rejects consumerism and "fast fashion" by treating her creations as works of art.

Calling upon our fears and anxieties surrounding artificial intelligence, multidisciplinary designer Madeline Gannon created Mimus – a 1200-kilogram industrial robot that can sense and respond to visitors' presence from within its enclosure.

Dutch product designer Christien Meindertsma chose to explore the potential of recycling textiles, and created an installation made up of rainbow-hued piles of fibres taken from 1,000 discarded woollen jumpers

In the centre of the room, Japanese graphic designer and Muji art director Kenya Hara has created a display of simple photographs that focus on staple foods around the world.

A secluded room displays the work of architect Andrés Jaque, who has created an audiovisual installation named Intimate Strangers.

Japanese fashion designer Ma Ke is showing her ongoing project Wuyong, in which she rejects consumerism and "fast fashion" by treating her creations as works of art

Inside, a series of screens present four short films each discussing the way our pursuit for sex and love on apps and social media networks is changing the way we view the city, our bodies and our identity.

Towards the back of the exhibition, Arquitectura Expandida – an activist architecture collective from Colombia – has installed a replica of a school it designed and built in one of the most disadvantaged communities of Bogota.

Hong Kong-based Rural Urban Framework explores how the nomads of Mongolia are adapting to urban life, while Amsterdam graphic designers Metahaven present a film about the marine wildlife conservation group Sea Shepherd accompanied by a series of colourful graphic flags.

Questioning our fears and anxieties surrounding artificial intelligence, multidisciplinary designer Madeline Gannon created Mimus – a 1200-kilogram industrial robot that can sense and respond to visitors from within its enclosure

The Fear and Love exhibition was designed by Sam Jacob and is located on the ground floor of the new Design Museum. It is open until 23 April 2017.

In a press conference today, museum director Deyan Sudjic revealed that upcoming exhibitions would include a show about the significance of California post-Charles and Ray Eames, a colour exhibit curated by Hella Jongerius, and an anniversary of the Russian revolution.

]]>https://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/17/design-museum-london-kensington-opening-exhibition-fear-love-reactions-complex-world/feed/0First photographs show London's new Design Museumhttps://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/16/first-photographs-design-museum-gareth-gardiner-cultural-architecture-interiors-john-pawson-south-kensington-london-uk/
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/16/first-photographs-design-museum-gareth-gardiner-cultural-architecture-interiors-john-pawson-south-kensington-london-uk/#respondWed, 16 Nov 2016 12:18:51 +0000https://admin.dezeen.com/?p=1008023These photographs taken by Gareth Gardner offer a glimpse of the interiors created by John Pawson for the new Design Museum ahead of its official opening next week. London-based architectural designer John Pawson has remodelled the interior of the former Commonwealth Institute building in South Kensington. These shots, taken at a friends-and-family event before the Design

]]>These photographs taken by Gareth Gardner offer a glimpse of the interiors created by John Pawson for the new Design Museum ahead of its official opening next week.

London-based architectural designer John Pawson has remodelled the interior of the former Commonwealth Institute building in South Kensington.

These shots, taken at a friends-and-family event before the Design Museum's press preview tomorrow and its public opening on 24 November 2016, show the £83-million transformation of the Grade-II*-listed building.

Pawson's conversion of the 1960s building provides the museum with almost 10,000 square metres of gallery spaces – triple the space available at its previous east London location in Shad Thames.

This allows the museum to simultaneously host a permanent display of its collection and two temporary exhibitions.

The exhibition spaces are arranged around a large atrium in the centre of the building, where the underside of the distinctive hyperbolic paraboloid roof is revealed. The space is overlooked by wood-lined galleries and features broad flights of steps that double as seats.

As well as the primary exhibition space, the building hosts the Swarovski Foundation Centre for Learning, the Bakala Auditorium, the Sackler Library and Archive and a Designers in Residence Studio. There is also a cafe, a restaurant, and a members' room.

The Design Museum shut the doors at its former Thames-side home in June 2016. The building was sold to Zaha Hadid Architects in 2013 in a deal believed to be worth £10 million, and the proceeds gifted back to the museum by designer Terence Conran, who founded it in 1989.

Pawson's plans for the Design Museum's new home were first unveiled in 2012 and slated for completion in 2014, but delayed until late November 2016 following issues with the renovation of the building.